Some days ago, at night, I saw that originally the Tripitaka was carried around in a special container and it had great influence, majesty and magical power, as you can imagine. This is the original story, of it there is hardly anything left, at least I have never heard much anything... There are still in some countries a habit of carrying around the the Tripitaka in a kind of procession once a year, this may be a distant reflection of the original Tripitaka Container and its ceremonial arrival. Then I saw, in this nightly panorama, that the occidental story of the Ark of the Covenant is really based on the existence of this first Tripitaka Container, and that the Ark of the Covenant derives from the power and influence of the Tripitaka Container.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ark_of_the_Covenant

In this view the Mahayana Tripitaka acquired a written form much earlier than generally accepted, that is in the first century after Tathagata's parinirvana. Like it or not, it is something that I have repeatedly experienced to be the truth, over the decades.That word in the first sentence is probably not quite right, in its place should be: "during the first century after Tathagata's parinirvana".

Astus wrote:Interesting, although I don't quite understand how one can "experience" something that happened more than two thousand years ago. I'd be interested in some evidence too.

That's why it is in this section "personal experience". Time doen't exist independently, 2000 years is like a millisecond when you start to get somewhere, beyond that come all the things of a really vast time scale, that are described in the Mahayana sutras,....

Astus wrote:Interesting, although I don't quite understand how one can "experience" something that happened more than two thousand years ago. I'd be interested in some evidence too.

That's why it is in this section "personal experience". Time doen't exist independently, 2000 years is like a millisecond when you start to get somewhere, beyond that come all the things of a really vast time scale, that are described in the Mahayana sutras,....

Astus wrote:Interesting, although I don't quite understand how one can "experience" something that happened more than two thousand years ago. I'd be interested in some evidence too.

That's why it is in this section "personal experience". Time doen't exist independently, 2000 years is like a millisecond when you start to get somewhere, beyond that come all the things of a really vast time scale, that are described in the Mahayana sutras,....

So you saw something from many centuries ago in a vision?

Yes, I think that is what is being said - which may explain Aemilius' previous expressed notions.

Visions have no truth just because we experience them. Confirmation is needed.

Will wrote:Visions have no truth just because we experience them. Confirmation is needed.

I also don't take them too seriously, I could equally well tell you what I dreamed last night or few days ago, and it wouldn' t need to be more true that that. I thought that sharing one's inner experience is the purpose of this section, is it not ? Dreams and visions have an inner logic, at the time of their occurrence they seem true and logical, what would be a rational confirmation? -I don't know. According to what I have read about buddhist history not very much is known about the approximately 20 early schools of buddhism, all kinds of things can have been existence that have since then disappeared without a trace. What are valid sources of knowledge in your view ?